OUR OPINION: Good manners have gone to the birds

Friday

Aug 8, 2014 at 6:00 AM

Birds are creating quite the kerfuffle this week.

In Hull, a Beach Road couple have been ordered by a Massachusetts Housing Court judge to stop feeding all birds, while in Carlisle, a local man faces criminal charges after reportedly poisoning his neighbors’ chickens. While some have criticized the media’s coverage of these stories as nothing more than fluff, both illustrate the small-mindedness (please note we didn’t say bird-brained thinking) of neighbors behaving badly.

In Hull, town officials have been trying since 2012 to block Gail Kansky from feeding birds at her summer home.

After neighbors complained, town officials investigated and found what they described as a scene right out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie with sometimes hundreds of birds descending on the beach-front community in a “feeding frenzy,” defecating on vehicles, decks and homes. What’s more, town officials said Kansky also threw food scraps to attract sea gulls, which then attracted rats.

Pleas to the Kanskys from neighbors and town officials to stop feeding the birds were met with defiance, so the town took them to court. Imagine the legal fees taxpayers must bear as a result, all because the Kanskys refuse to be considerate neighbors.

Yet on it goes. This week the Kanskys said they plan to file an appeal in the next 30 days.

Meanwhile, in Carlisle, a local man faces charges for allegedly killing his neighbors’ rooster and 10 other chickens after months of being awakened in the predawn hours by the bird’s persistent and piercing cock-a-doodle-doo. According to The Boston Globe, Carlisle police say Frank Sargent, a man who’s devoted 17 years to the Carlisle Fire Department, is facing jail time and a $2,500 fine.

Sargent reportedly appealed to his neighbors, Brendan Mirfield and his fiancée, Amanda DeFreest, for two years to curb their rooster. He called the police multiple times during those predawn hours, and he wrote letters to the Board of Health, the local newspaper and even Mosquito Control. Other neighbors had their sleep disturbed, too.

Still the couple allowed their rooster to crow. Even now, they refuse to keep only hens and forgo a rooster, crowing about their victory to the paper, “God, no,” DeFreest told the Globe. “That would mean he won.”

As troubling as Sargent’s alleged actions are – there is no excuse for harming animals – his neighbors’ behavior is also foul. The town of Carlisle bears some responsibility too; it should have addressed the issue two years ago. Roosters do not belong in suburban neighborhoods.

What both of these cases illustrate is that common sense and courtesy are no longer so common. A person’s home should be a haven, free from the intrusive actions of others.

In these instances, the inciting factors happen to be birds, but the same can be true for persistent patterns of playing loud music, allowing dogs to defecate on a neighbor’s lawn, or any number of other rude behaviors. When it comes to interacting with your neighbors, always act with the Golden Rule in mind.

As any local police department can attest, neighbor disputes can be among the most ugly calls. Before you fly off the handle, ask yourself who’s really in the wrong – it just may be you who’s acting like the cock of the walk.

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